Hearing deficiencies can range from partial hearing impairment to complete hearing loss. Often, an individual's hearing ability varies across the range of audible sound frequencies, and many individuals have hearing impairment with respect to only select acoustic frequencies. For example, an individual's hearing loss may be greater at higher frequencies than at lower frequencies.
Hearing aids have been developed to alleviate the effects of hearing losses in individuals. Conventionally, hearing aids range from ear pieces configured to amplify sounds to configurable hearing devices offering adjustable operational parameters that can be configured by a hearing specialist to enhance the performance of the hearing aid. Parameters, such as volume or tone, often can be easily adjusted, and many hearing aids allow for the individual users to adjust these parameters. However, other parameters may only be adjusted by the audiologist or by another health professional.
In instances where the individual's hearing loss varies across frequencies, such hearing aids can be tuned by an audiologist, for example, to compensate for the unique variations of the individual's hearing loss. The audiologist or health professional typically takes measurements using calibrated and specialized equipment to assess an individual's hearing capabilities in a variety of sound environments, and then adjusts the hearing aid based on the calibrated measurements to compensate for the individual's hearing loss. Subsequent adjustments to the hearing aid can require additional measurements and further calibration, which can be costly and time intensive.
However, for some users, the transition from not wearing a hearing aid to wearing a hearing aid can be traumatic. In particular, sounds that the user is not accustomed to hearing can suddenly be made audible to the user by the hearing aid. Some individuals, such as those wearing hearing aids for the first time, can experience psychological distress when hearing is restored to a normal level after years of suffering from hearing loss. Due to such distress, the first time user may have a difficult time adjusting to the hearing aid, and may give up on hearing aids altogether.